Ophtho is a great specialty. It is a wonderful combination of family practice and a surgical specialty. The hours are generally good (with call being minimal), the pay is good, and is extremely rewarding (not to say that most aren't). However, All that makes Ophtho a very difficult residency to obtain, osteopathic or allopathic. There have been a few address posted to find out more info. The only thing off the top of my head would be to look at scutwork.com. that should be able to link you with the info your looking for.

Ophthalmology is an awesome specialty. I think it is one of the sleepers that people don't really think about. Excellent balance between medicine and surgery. The pathology you can actually see is so cool, especially retinal pathology. The surgeries are extremely delicate and very difficult to learn and master. Ophtho is always on the cutting edge of developing new technology, so you get to play with neat toys. It's not the easiest residency, but it's not one of the tougher ones either. All in all, it's a lot of fun. Have you seen a lot of grumpy ophthalmologists?

By the way, it's kind of boring to watch someone in clinic. It's much more fun doing it yourself. Heck, when I was a 4th year doing my elective and watching others in clinic, I was bored myself. But now actually doing it on my own, I'm extremely happy with my choice.

One thing I love about this field is the immediate gratifications. Whether it's surgery or a simple refraction, patients love you and the rewards are almost immediate. I had a patient who was 20/200 in one eye due to a posterior capsular opacity; after the yag, he was seeing 20/25 thirty minutes later!

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